Lots of Christmas Pictures

Ella and Zoe were so into Christmas this year. They loved it all; from the decorations, lights and yummy treats -- to looking at Christmas cards we received in the mail, all of the gifts under the tree

and the anticipation of Santa.

Christmas Eve day we had fun creating our family 'Elf Yourself' video, doing a silly disco dance,

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/qyyvdVAPeIgWVmQD

and viewing videos that Santa himself emailed us.

Ella watching her video . . .

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/05e9e6830627bbcde272c89bf7affabd

. . . and Zoe watching hers!!

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/569b03a3df85ef834c6a3a697170ad89

The first gifts Zoe and Ella wanted to open were the ones they gave each other -- new stencils and colored pencils!!

They even picked out the purple and pink gift bags,

and kept them too : )

They had fun opening gifts together . . . .

. . . . by themselves . . .

. . . . and helping their Dad (and me) open our gifts.

This year they picked out gifts for Tom by themselves,

from the Dollar Store. He got a whoopie cushion,

a squiggly worm thing and floss sticks : )

Christmas Morning they were thrilled to find that Santa did indeed stop by our house while they were sleeping, and that the cookies, milk, carrots (for the reindeer) and cheese (for Santa Mouse of course) had been eaten up. They also thought it was very funny that Santa Mouse gave them each their own book about a mouse -- Stuart Little!!

Despite a lot of snow we made it to Buffalo for the day, where the girls had more fun with some of the McLain side of our family

as well as a few close family friends.

The girls and I with Ted . . . .

. . . and with Carl and Judy.

Opening gifts was a lot of fun (not a surprise),

and probably the most favorite gift this year

were their Zhu Zhu pets from Auntie Jen.

Zoe named hers Daisy, and Ella named hers Honey.

Zoe with Daisy.

Although Ella really loves Honey, she really really loved the new doggy pajamas that my parent's puppy Annie gave her (Zoe got a pair too). She loved them so much she immediately put them on over her dress and tights, until it was time for bed -- and then we just took them off, took off her dress and tights,

and put the jammies back on again.

The day after Christmas we celebrated with about 20 of the Rupprecht side of our family, where the girls had a ton of fun as well. It was so busy I didn't get a chance to take my camera out of my purse though, so unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. It was also the first time Zoe and Ella did not lay down for their afternoon nap, and they were wiped out by 3:00. So much so, this is how they looked on our drive home at 4:30pm -- after being in the car for less than 5 minutes : )

Now it's time to take down our Christmas decorations and start thinking of our New Year's Eve plan . . . . 2010, here we come!!